A latest video from retro tech YouTuber Clint “LGR” Basinger dives into a side of non-public computing you in all probability have not put a lot thought into—or not less than I positive did not till now. After being impressed by an aquatic screensaver on a TV at an area bar, LGR did some analysis into the historical past of the SereneScreen Marine Aquarium, a veritable dynasty within the aquatic screensaver area that is nonetheless going robust to this present day.
The story facilities on Jim Sachs, a person with a kind of “they do not make this kind of man anymore” life tales so frequent to ’80s and ’90s computing, one Sachs recounted to the web site AmigaLove again in 2020. After a six-year profession within the US Air Drive flying C-141 Starlifters, Sachs taught himself programming and digital artwork and commenced creating video games for Commodore 64 and Amiga computer systems. From his first sport, Saucer Assault, to later efforts like Defender of the Crown or his massive portfolio of promotional and commissioned items, Sachs’ pixel artwork stays beautiful and spectacular to this present day, and he appears to be a little bit of a legend amongst Commodore fanatics.
It is with this background in video games and digital artwork that Sachs checked out Microsoft’s easy aquarium-themed screensaver for Home windows 95 and 98 and thought he might do higher. “Microsoft had an aquarium that they gave away with Home windows the place it was simply bitmaps of fish being dragged throughout the display screen,” Sachs informed the Matt Chat podcast again in 2015. “They usually had that for like, three or 4 years. And I believed, I’ve given them sufficient time, I am taking them to market. I am gonna do one thing which can simply blow that away.”
Utilizing reference images of actual aquariums—Sachs thanked a selected pet store that is nonetheless round in an early model of his web site—Sachs created the 3D artwork by hand and programmed the screensaver in C++, releasing the preliminary model in July 2000. Even all of it these years later, the primary iteration of the SereneScreen Marine Aquarium is fairly beautiful, and it has the added appeal of being such a distinctly Y2K, nostalgic throwback.
The standalone screensaver bought nicely, however then issues got here full circle with Microsoft licensing a model of the Marine Aquarium for the Home windows XP Plus Pack and later customary releases of the OS. Since that point, the Marine Aquarium has continued to see new releases, and a piece on the SereneScreen web site retains monitor of its varied appearances within the background of flicks and TV exhibits like Regulation and Order. Over on the SereneScreen web site, you should purchase an actual time, 3D-accelerated model of the Marine Aquarium for Mac, iOS, Android, and the unique Home windows. Echoing the Home windows XP deal, Roku really licensed this 3.0 model for its TVs, bringing it to a brand new technology of customers.
Screensavers do not have wherever close to the ubiquity they used to because of the ascendancy of LCD screens and handy monitor sleep modes, however the thought of them having a second life because of good TVs and streaming providers warms my coronary heart a bit—I do not also have a Roku TV, however I nonetheless discover one thing charming and eccentric concerning the built-in Roku Metropolis screensaver.
The evocative artwork utilized in ’90s PC screensavers has secured them a surprisingly distinguished place in lots of millennials’ psyches. The Home windows ’95 maze appears to have a maintain over many in my cohort, however I am personally an enormous fan of the Home windows XP 3D pipes. PC Gamer contributor Sarah Richter wrote about how considered one of her favourite childhood “video games” turned out to have been a screensaver/early desktop pet, Johnny Castaway.
